Review #10: Audio Book

Patterson, James, Christopher Tebbetts, and Laura Park. Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life. New York: Little, Brown, 2011. Audio.

Annotation: Meet Rafe Khatchadorian, total middle school loner, loser and all-round badass rule- breaking student.

Justification for Nomination:   

             James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts team up for this marvelous voyage about one boy's attempt at surviving middle school. The first thing that stands out is how absolutely entertaining and funny the book is.

Rafe is a very likable character, and listeners will love laughing along with him. His rule-breaking game is extremely creative and gets him into trouble time and time again. But along the way of his rule-breaking he does face the penalties of his actions and those around him affected by it. Bryan Kennedy does a great job in voicing the middle schooler, Rafe. He brings a comical voice when needed and an endearing voice to Rafe when he knows his faults. No doubt the character came alive because of Bryan Kennedy

This unique and fast moving storyline has a couple of revelation bombs dropped along the way that make it even more captivating. Also noteworthy are the intensely detailed illustrations of Laura Park that are included in the CD via PDF. They support the story line as they are the work of Rafe's friend, Leo, and above they add even more humor to the story.

Patterson, Tebbetts, illustrator and narrator Bryan Kennedy make a great team in providing humor to the worst years in middle school life for all young adults going into middle school.  It’s a book that dives into the awkward and intense first stages of being a young adult.  It is one of those audio books that have you laughing and tugging your heart till the end.

Genre Category: Audio book, humor, coming of age

             

Review #9: ALEX Award winner or Adult "Market" Author Popular with Teens

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead, 2003. Print.

Annotation: A young man is haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons that drive his quest for forgiveness, bringing him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule.
Justification for Nomination: 

 Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner is an experience filled with genuine plot twist and characters that defy human life. This powerful story shows the fragile relationship between fathers and sons, humans and their gods, men and their countries. Loyalty and blood are the ties that bind their stories into one of the most emotional, touching and astonishing books of all time.

Hosseini has this distinctive ability to lyrically describe the beauty and violence of the country, Afghanistan, making the setting come alive. You can hear the yells of street vendors as main characters Amir and Hassan run through the streets, you can smell the kebabs as they are grilled in the summer heat and you can feel the hot sun as it scorches young Amir’s back.  The author’s beautiful words propel the story and setting, giving you a taste of Afghanistan without going there.

Most books have a hard time capturing human characteristics, but Hosseini does a great job of capturing the character of Amir. You travel with him as he discovers himself and atones for his past. Looking at the character you are drawn to his inner monologues about his guilty that he carries everywhere with him, which all human beings can attest too.  You become so attached to the character that in the end you forget that you are reading fiction instead of his personal memoir.

The Kite Runner is a fast paced fictitious story that will have readers flipping each page with eagerness. It has the composition of a classic work of literature with its very well developed characters and story that harbors depth and intrigue. The book is heightened with graphic violence that draws out many emotions including empathy and sadness. The book is heartbreaking, divine, depressing, uplifting, and inspiring. It's everything you need in a good YA book. It makes you feel, think, and wonder about the human mind.

Genre Category: Science Fiction

Review #8: Censored or Challenged Title

Picoult, Jodi. My Sister's Keeper: a Novel. New York: Washington Square, 2005. Print.

Annotation: A young women’s decision to bring a lawsuit against her parents, brings devastating results that can break a family apart.

Justification for Nomination:

MY SISTER'S KEEPER by Jodi Picoult is the amazing, gut-wrenching, sad, funny, insightful, moving and thought-provoking story of this American family. Readers are asked to think about all of the scientific underdoing’s in the world --- of the ways in which these tools are used or, unfortunately, abused, and how the results of redirecting fate sometimes feels like the dizzying sensations experienced in threading one's way through the mirrors of a funhouse.

This novel is insightful in that Picoult gives us some very difficult questions for the readers. Does Anna have the obligation to risk her own health to save her sister? Do her parents have the right to make the medical decisions about Anna's donor role, and where should their loyalties lie? There seems to be no right or wrong answers in the novel to those questions but does lead to thinking about scientific research into playing god with DNA.

Picoult paints a powerfully emotional picture of a family in turmoil. She adds additional tension to the story through their brother Jesse, whose drug taking and criminal tendencies add even more burdens to an already overwrought situation. I love the way she travels from first to third-person storytelling and also the way she tells this story from every main character’s perspective because then the reader hears the voices of each family member, as well as that of Anna's lawyer and of the legal guardian appointed to watch out for her interests.

The novel is an excellent novel to read, it is full of moral and ethical questions that will have the reader glued to the pages. The novel flourish in that Picoult does a great job in defining characters, plots that keeps you reading, and her ability to keep us guess throughout the book till the end; you never know what will happen next. I recommend this book for any young adult who will fight for their own freedom.

Genre Category: Censored or Challenged Title, Coming of age, Realistic

Review 7: Science Fiction or Fantasy

Tanigawa, Nagaru, and Noizi Ito. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. New York: Little, Brown and Co. 2009. Print.

Annotation: A young man’s world gets turned upside-down by a girl behind him in homeroom, who introduces herself as Haruhi Suzumiya and declares that she isn't interested in normal people, only aliens, time travelers, espers, or sliders.

Justification for Nomination:
Nagaru Tanigawa’s The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a simple light novel that explores a universive filled with aliens, time travelers and many other phenomenons. The plot of the novel is unique in that it paces itself rather well, introducing key events at just the right time, creating a gripping read that doesn't loosen its hold on the reader. Though the novel has its fair share of action and suspense, its main attraction is its exceptional cast of characters that never fail to capture readers' attentions.

For one, the novel is developed from Kyon's first-person narrative view as he lives his first year of highschool.  Tanigawa did a phenomenal job in having Kyon as the narrative because his witty self-reservations on Haruhi and the other's behavior are hilarious and insightful. All the characters in the light novel bring a cliché personality: we have the gorgeous naïve clumsy girl, the book worm, the mysterious student, the over-demanding bossy girl and Kyon a loner youth. Yet for this novel, Tanigawa contrast each with supernatural abilities that drives you to find out why each one is there and what their purpose is.

With all the supernatural beings and technology aside, the novels bring true to YA literatures in that the story contrasts the contentment with everyday life with the desire for something more, through a narrator who remains comedic in a very human way while surrounded by the strange and unusual. Even though both the setting and action feature elements that are culturally characteristic of Japanese life, the central question is something familiar to every youth: Is this life all there is for me, and is it OK for me to be satisfied with it? Kyon goes on a journey of self-discovery, a place where he belongs and to truly find out who he is.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is what good Young Adult novels should be: fun, light, comical, dramatic, and surprising. Filled with laughter, mystery, and interesting character development, author Nagaru Tanigawa weaves an entertaining story that won't soon be forgotten.
Genre Category: Science Fiction

Review 6: Vampire

Hino, Matsuri, Tomo Kimura, and Mark McMurray. Vampire Knight. San Francisco, CA: Viz Media, 2007. Print.

Annotation: Cross Academy an innocent school by day, a terrifying supernatural school at night.

Justification for Rejection:
              Matsuri Hino’s The Vampire Knight, is a classic vampire story about human girl meets alluring vampire boy, but it does offer readers a slightly altered twist. Vampires and humans co-exist at the same school, but go to school in different sessions: day classes for the humans and night classes for the vampires.

To be honest, I struggled with reading the graphic novel, but only because this genre reading is not my forte.  But this graphic novel did bring about a lot of dramatic tension and twists into the character’s live. Hino did a wonderful job with pacing of black and white panels, everything had a beat, and wasn’t too fast for the readers. The art work of graphic novel is beautifully drawn and perfect, the characters were drawn out without flaws.  

The main heroine Yuki Cross goes through the same young adult angst, trying to find out who she is, struggling with the truth of the world, and coming to terms with her changed environment. All the elements for a perfect young adult setting but the way Matsuri Hino sets up the characters in her graphic novel is confusing, you don’t get a lot of information on Yuki Cross on who she is, Hino leaves a lot of information out and draws it out until the very end of the volume, causing frustration for the readers. The graphic novel is a typical two supernatural beings falling in love with a girl, who struggles with whom to choose and leads both young men on.

Matsuri Hino’s premise of vampire love is great for young teens who would love a forbidden love story but overall the graphic novel seems to be more about the characters than building a plot that would urge readers to continue reading. Every story needs a remarkable plot that keeps you reading from start to finish, which is why this is in my rejection pile.

           

Genre Category: Supernatural, Horror, or Vampire

Review 5: Multicultural

 Ali, Monica. Brick Lane: a Novel. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.

Annotation: An arranged marriage brings a young Bangladeshi woman, Nazeen, to London; exposed to a world unknown she must face the trials and tribulations of the new world.

Justification for Nomination: Monica Ali’s Brick Lane is a splendid novel on the clash of two different worlds. The writing style is lively and vivid. The reader can smell the aroma of spices drifting through the halls, view the cultural rich clutter of an unkempt and overcrowded apartment, and share the confusion and horror that simmer in Brick Lane due to cultural, religious, and racial prejudice.

Each character is carefully crafted and brought to life. Ali peels back the surface layers of Chanu to reveal his inner doubts and disappointments. The secondary characters such as the starchy Dr. Azad, the crafty hypochondriac Mrs. Islam, and the India British born Razia, are depicted with a clever touch. Ali’s main character Nazeen is wonderfully written; you get lost in her struggles and feel her confusion and frustration with the isolation of her life.

Speaking directly to the reader in modest but vividly descriptive prose, Ali recreates the details of Nazneen's life, showing how the superficially trivial choices she begins to make acquire new meanings in her life. Through remarkable details, the reader watches her gradual acceptance of a new culture, while her husband Chanu remains anchored in the traditions of the past. Brick Lane reveals the emotional battles and the subtle changes that happen when an immigrant sees the possibilities inherent in a new culture, radically different from the culture of the past, and begins to embrace it. Page by page, Ali shows just how this progression evolves, producing a pulsating portrayal of a family in transition and of a woman coming into her own. With these details Brick Lane is a remarkable tale of a young lady’s journey into adulthood and the clash of two cultures. The novel captures the thoughts and emotion planted in an immigrant’s journey into a new world.

Genre Category: Multicultural, Coming of age

Review 4: General Nonfiction

Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Home: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008. Print.

Annotation: Separated from family and friends this is the plight of boy soldier during the civil war in Sierra Leone.

Justification for Nomination:   

                

“A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" vividly portrays the life of a young teenage boy from Sierra Leone named Ishmael Beah. Beah gives a gentle portrayal of his life before the war had reached his small village and forever changed his life.

His description of the small details of his life; his love for rap music, his family, and the soccer games he played with his friends serve to highlight the extreme changes he undergoes to become a child soldier. Beah balances tales of the terrible times of war with memories of happier times with his family. He has a gift for words and language that make the book instantly engaging. Intriguing descriptions are scattered throughout its pages. “everything felt awkwardly brutal”; “she had a unique and graceful walk. It was almost as if she sailed on the ground”.

The story of Ishmael's survival throughout this hell is truly an inspiration and I believe it is a must for all young readers. It is a mesmerising read, well-written with passion, insight, cleverness, and innocence. It hard to imagine what Ishmael Beah went through, but from the start of the memoir to the end, you become an eye witness his journey and bear witness to his survival.

Genre Category: General Nonfiction, Memoir